Change Your Image
![](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjQ4MTY5NzU2M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNDc5NTgwMTI@._V1_SY100_SX100_.jpg)
rbruhn-1
Reviews
Marcella (2016)
Just another "Luther."
This seems like nothing more than a rehash of "Luther" but with a female lead. Same premise: seemingly psychic rogue cop with crappy personal life and clueless superiors works on high-profile murder cases. Poorly written, not particularly well-acted except for the main character. Ginned-up plots with little or no semblance of how people actually behave. Terrible dialog. You have to feel sorry for the poor actors who have to try to give credible performances while reading such rubbish. I suppose if you watch a lot of cop shows on network TV you get used to this kind of drivel, but I don't and I'm not. Anna Friel was good in American Odyssey (though the series itself left something to be desired) and Idris Elba was fantastic in "The Wire" and "Beasts of No Nation," but neither "Luther" nor "Marcella" are very good shows and are a waste of their otherwise fine talent. But I guess everybody's gotta make a living.
Boy Meets Girl (2014)
Michelle Hendley, 1. This movie, 0.
While I applaud Michelle Hendley's breakout performance in particular, and the film's attempt to deal with transgender issues in general, my unavoidable conclusion is that this is really a perfectly awful film. It has no internal logic; the plot just sputters forward with no regard to character, dialog or common sense. There are so many instances of face-palm behavior that I couldn't begin to list them here. Another reviewer mentioned "Boys Don't Cry" (a movie about an event that took place 75 miles from where I live) as an example of a good transgender movie, and I would totally agree. "Boy Meets Girl," however is not even close to that standard, not even in the same universe. I would hope to see Michelle Hendley again, in a better movie. But this movie, no. What a mess.
Rita (2012)
Not your American TV show
Probably the thing I like most about this series, and the thing which attracted me to it in the first place, is the contrast it provides between it and anything that might appear on American TV. This show could NEVER appear on American TV, unless on one of the subscription channels like HBO, because it has such a casual and accepting attitude towards sex and sexuality and towards "profanity." These things don't bother me in the least, but I'm hardly the norm in America. If this series is any indication, then clearly the Danes, like other Europeans, are much more grown up in their attitudes towards sex and language. Not that that should surprise anyone.
That being said, I'm right on the cusp of giving up on this series. (I've watched 6 episodes.) This is another of those productions which is plot-driven to the detriment of character development. What I mean by that is that the writers, in order to move things along, cause the characters to be simply carried along by the necessities of the plot without regard to whether their characters ever would (or could), in a million years, actually act like that. Zebras, it is rightly said, cannot change their stripes, but in this series people change their personalities quicker than you can change your pants.
Bottom line, I think, is just that the series is poorly written, and as a result the characters swim around in a plot-driven sea tide which carries them around willy-nilly, without any volition or logic on their part.
On the plus side, Mille Dinesen has a beautiful butt, and the camera unabashedly lingers on it. I wish that were enough to keep me watching, but I'm afraid it's not.